One day Natan Sharansky's talking to bloggers

... the next day, he's talking to Vice President Cheney.

Yesterday, Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident who became deputy prime minister of Israel, met with Vice President Cheney to discuss his worries about the failings of America's pro-democratic strategy.

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Sharansky would not get into details about his parley with Mr. Cheney other than to say, "Mainly this was about democracy and about American policy in Iran. We are now trying to engage Russia and Iran on the one hand and weakening the opposition there on the other. We need to understand the opposition are our real allies and not repeat the mistakes of the Clinton administration."

We in the blogosphere are definitely getting what we asked for; Mr. Sharansky voiced very high expectations of the bloggers with whom he spoke last week. Pamela at Atlas Shrugs quotes him:

I understand the great power which all of you have in your hands. In fact I think how different our world [would have been] when he was a dissident in the communist world, if there was an internet.

For you from your own own home can have free access to people behind the iron curtain ...... it's a great great power.

It remains to be seen whether we are up to the task (or will Sharansky later be seen as the first to call our bluff?) ...

While you ponder how hard I should be working, I'm going to use use my power to make lunch and produce some clean socks.

More later.